Compliance with general labor standards is the workers' major concern in the country, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said citing the result of the accounting on all calls in its hotline.
In a statement, DOLE said Hotline 1349 has received over 126,000 inquiries from 2023 until the first quarter of 2024 and these calls serve as the data in analyzing the concerns of the callers.
“Among the inquiries raised by callers were the release of final pay; computation of holiday pay; separation, suspension, and termination; and non-remittance of employees’ contributions to government-mandated benefits, such as SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG,” DOLE said.
The department said other calls cover questions on local employment opportunities and the process of job hiring and placement.
Last year, the hotline tellers responded to 83,683 queries on labor standards.
In the first quarter of 2024, DOLE said the hotline received 24,649 calls on labor standards.
For 2023, it said there were 9,177 queries on social protection and welfare; 4,171 queries on employment facilitation, including TUPAD and youth employment programs; and 1,329 queries on labor relations.
In the first half of the year, the DOLE hotline received 3,100 calls on employment facilitation; 1,549 calls on social protection and welfare; and 278 calls on labor relations.